


I can't believe (you actually picked me)

by smooth



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, F/F, Punky Monkey friendship obvs, super fluffy until it isn't
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-10
Updated: 2014-09-10
Packaged: 2018-02-16 21:56:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2285811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smooth/pseuds/smooth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Delphine…” A familiar voice whines and the pressure on her stomach disappears for a moment only for the same pointed object to stab her twice as hard. “You hit me in the fajdgslk.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	I can't believe (you actually picked me)

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know. It's a Future!Cophine thing.

There is something sort of really sharp digging into her stomach.

That’s the first semi-coherent thought that registers in Delphine’s sleepy brain. She hasn’t opened her eyes yet but the sun’s burning holes in her eyelids, her throat is scratchy and tastes like freshly taken crap and.

There is something really, really sharp digging into her stomach.

She groans, makes a few uncoordinated movements with her hands and hears another groan, this time not from herself.

“Delphine…” A familiar voice whines and the pressure on her stomach disappears for a moment only for the same pointed object to stab her twice as hard. “You hit me in the fajdgslk.”

The following silence forces Delphine to open an eye. Upon further inspection she realizes that the sharp object is in fact the elbow of her wife who has made some futile attempts at protesting against her defensive movements only to fall back asleep.

Cosima is ridiculous when she sleeps. Her cheek is practically crushed into her pillow, one eye shut way more tightly than the other, mouth wide open and a stream of drool running from it. She snores sometimes, she talks in her sleep and she loves kicking and punching while dreaming. Delphine’s not entirely sure she’s doing it unconsciously.

And she absolutely loves it.

She sighs happily and reaches back to spoon Cosima even though the damned elbow is still digging a hole into her.

“MOMMY!” How such a tiny child can emit such high-pitched sounds is seriously beyond Delphine. Cosima’s back immediately stiffens which is a clear message: _I’m awake but you’re the one dealing with this mess._

Sometimes Delphine can’t help but think the two of them are horrible parents even though they’re supposedly doing everything right. She loves the kid, she does but occasionally she just wants to bury herself under one hundred blankets and leave Cosima to sort it out.

Evidently so does her wife.

Delphine trips a couple of times but fortunately manages to go down the stairs without falling. Her child is sitting on the floor in the kitchen, clothes and face and hair soaked in milk, and the most miserable expression Delphine has ever seen.

She is not even surprised. Instead she just crouches and looks her daughter in the eyes.

“Did you hurt yourself?”

“MOMMY, I JUST WANTED TO POUL SOME -” The little girl stops, considers the question and her cheeks redden. “I got scawed,” She admits and looks downward.

“Did you try to fix yourself breakfast again and accidentally spilled this over yourself?”

The child eyes her cautiously and even though she nods only slightly, her blonde curls bounce fervently along.

“I’m sowwy,” She mumbles. “I di’n’t wanna wake you up.”

Delphine knows she should probably reprimand her or at least tell her to stop doing this because she’s only four and this is her third unsuccessful attempt to make herself breakfast this week.

Instead she just grins at her daughter who beams back, already forgetting about the milk accident.

“C’mon. Let’s change your clothes.”

\--

Fifteen minutes later Delphine’s preparing coffee and the kid’s munching happily at her cereal. Cosima’s currently in the process of descending the stairs in her wife’s robe which is like a cocoon enwrapping her small frame, her glasses tilted to a side and some toothpaste smeared on the top of her nose.

She’s absolutely breathtaking.

“Mowning, mama,” Their daughter chirps, mouth full of Lucky Charms.

“Mornin’, baby,” Cosima kisses the top of her head then turns to her wife. “Hey,” Years after and Cosima’s grin never ceases to warm Delphine’s heart… and other parts as well… but oh, God, their child is here, abort mission!

“Good morning, chérie,” Delphine pecks her lips and pulls away before Cosima can deepen the kiss.

Cosima lets a low whine before sighing to herself and plopping down on a chair.

“So wanna tell me why you were screaming so loudly, Sarah?” She raises an eyebrow at the little girl but she doesn’t sound angry.

Sarah looks at her guiltily, cheeks puffing with all the food in her mouth.

“No?” She says unconvincingly and offers a hopeful smile.

Cosima raises her other eyebrow as well. Delphine laughs while pouring coffee in hers and her wife’s favorite mugs respectively.

Her phone rings from inside her pajama pants’ pocket. The laugh dies on her lips.

Cosima’s easy grin freezes on her face.

Even Sarah stops eating when she sees her mothers' reactions.

“Hello?” Delphine pronounces slowly into the earphone.

“You haven’t forgotten about today, have you?” A female voice rasps in her ear.

She bites her lip. Inhales. Curses silently her entire existence.

“Doctor Cormier?”

She wants to scream and punch and tear apart because she is not _Doctor_ Cormier. Not anymore.

Who is she kidding? They’ll never let her forget. Cosima, in her house, in her bed, in her _heart_ , will never let her forget.

“No, I haven’t,” She replies with a trembling voice. Better this than sob and aren’t her eyes hurting with unshed tears. “I will be there.”

“Good,” And then all she hears is the dial tone.

Cosima jumps from her seat the moment Delphine puts the phone down.

“Who was it?” She queries and when her wife doesn’t respond, her tone gets higher, “Who w _as_ it, Delphine?!”

“Not in front of the child,” Delphine hisses when she sees Sarah’s wide eyes, full of confusion.

Cosima gives her a pained twisted smile, nods, turns to face their daughter.

“Hey, baby, mommy and I need to talk for a sec. You finish your breakfast, alright?”

Sarah makes a jerky move with her head that’s obviously supposed to be a nod but doesn’t quite look like it. Cosima grabs Delphine’s elbow a little too forcefully and the two of them go upstairs to their room.

Their fights, which are admittedly fewer than before but happen nonetheless, are always loud and including not-so-kind-adjectives and reminders like _Even your first words to me were a lie, Jesus Christ_ and _You are such a pain in the ass_ and even _If I could go back in time, I would have never married you._ So Delphine is a little more than surprised when instead of jumping at her throat, Cosima just leans her forehead on the door and mutters.

“You have to talk to me, Delphine.”

Oh God. Somehow this is so much worse.

“There is nothing to talk about.”

Cosima turns around and her eyes are full of tears which Delphine knows won’t run down her cheeks, her pride’s that big.

“You’ve been receiving these anonymous calls that leave you all pale and worried for a couple of days now. What’s going on?”

“Nothing is going on-”

“Are you cheating on me?”

“Wha-”

“Then what is it?”

Delphine opens her mouth. Takes a deep breath. Stares at her wife. Wants to confess everything. Realizes she can’t.

She shakes her head.

“I will take care of it. I promise,” Is all she can offer.

Cosima takes an almost desperate step towards her. “But you don’t have to!” She yells. “Not on your own,” She adds, more softly now, and her eyelashes are wet.

Delphine sighs, rubs her forehead. Wants to kill herself if possible. “Yes, I do.”

She leaves, not once looking back at her wife because she knows she’ll hate herself even more if she sees Cosima crying.

\--

“You’re late.”

Delphine’s entire body turns to ice – a reaction she hasn’t yet mastered suppressing no matter how many years have passed. She suddenly feels tired and helpless and drops down on the cane chair ungracefully.

“But I’m here, aren’t I?”

Rachel Duncan gives her a tiny smirk from across the table. “Yes, you are. I didn’t think you would show up.”

“Of course you did,” The exhaustion in Delphine’s voice doesn’t really help her sound menacing in any way. “You called exactly because you knew I would do everything to protect my family.”

Rachel’s disgusting smile widens. “Ah, your family, of course. Cosima who is now your wife and little… Sarah, right? Quite the name you two have chosen.”

Delphine doesn’t comment on the fact it’s probably one of the most popular names. “What do you want from me, Rachel? You toyed with me for a while so you could be sure Cosima and I would eventually fight over this. And yes, we did. And no, I haven’t told her anything. But what do you _really_ want from me?”

Her wife’s clone gazes at her appraisingly and Delphine’s bark has gotten louder over the years but her bite is just as weak as before so she looks away from the other woman. She tells herself it’s because of that _thing_ on her face.

“Impressive,” Rachel drawls, her posh accent making the word sound somehow unfinished, not enough on its own. “You have changed a lot since we last met, Doctor Cormier.”

Delphine huffs. “Well, you are just the same.”

Rachel’s short insincere laughter pierces her ears and probably causes an internal bleeding somewhere in them. “I see why you named your child the way you did. Your speech seems very influenced by Sarah Manning herself.”

Her relationship with Sarah is considerably better than before but still nowhere around warm and friendly but Delphine doesn’t tell her that. Or the bubbling remark in her throat, something in the lines of _Well, your eye seems influenced by Sarah just as much._ There are more pressuring matters right now.

“What do you want from me?” She repeats instead.

Rachel takes a slow sip from her tea. “To re-hire you,” She offers eventually.

Delphine scrunches her eyebrows perplexedly. “What?”

“To re-hire you,” Rachel says in the exact same tone. “I know you have a different job now that has nothing to do with immunology or even biology which is a big waste of potential, I must say,” She pauses as if expecting Delphine to thank her for the compliment. “However, as you can probably guess, the DYAD institute is renewing its activity and your assistance is required.”

“My assistance?” Delphine mumbles dumbly.

“Yes, on the exact same position – as a monitor. Cosima is healthy now – but it didn’t happen by a miracle – and we want to know exactly what the consequences her body suffered are.”

Delphine just stares at her for a few moments, trying to put the chaos in her head in order.

“But… but you don’t even know how we cured her in the first place,” Is the first thing that comes out of her mouth despite the hundreds of questions in her head.

Rachel gives her a somehow pitiful look and she immediately breaks away from her trance-like state.

“Oh, Doctor Cormier, of course I do,” She says. “A certain sister of Cosima’s has the suicidal tendency to always try to help her. You don’t expect me to miss such a golden opportunity, I’m sure.”

 _Sarah!,_ Delphine’s tortured brain screams at her, _She’s got Sarah once again!_

Sarah always gets away. Sarah always survives, that’s a thing Cosima herself has told her.

And maybe she’ll take Rachel’s other eye with her this time.

Rachel obviously notices her contemplative expression and the now full grin that stretches her lips is absolutely horrifying. The fine hairs on Delphine’s neck bristle and her stomach drops.

“I do not repeat my mistakes, I assure you. Neither do you, I believe.” As she says that, she swallows elegantly the last drops of her tea and stands up. “Have a good day, Doctor Cormier.”

She’s almost fifteen feet away when Delphine’s mind catches up with the events that have just occurred.

“Why?!” She yells agitatedly. A few people sitting on the tables nearby look at her. “Why now?”

Rachel slowly turns on her heels with a what somebody who doesn’t know her would call a sympathizing expression on her face.

“You and I both know why.”

\--

Cosima doesn’t talk to her all day. Delphine is too worn out to try and make up with her. Instead, since it’s Sunday, she just plays with Sarah until noon and then takes her out for lunch which Cosima refuses to attend. The child tries to ask what's wrong with the subtlety of a four-year-old and Delphine gives her a big smile, silently chastising herself for underestimating her daughter so much. She’s sure Sarah sees right through her but thankfully the girl doesn’t say anything else.

Cosima doesn’t talk to her when they come back. They have an unusually uneventful dinner where both of them try to engage their daughter in a conversation and the child stubbornly doesn’t say anything in response.

Cosima still doesn’t talk to her when they go to bed. Delphine doesn’t even think of reaching to cuddle with her, let alone do something else. The two armed men that apparently have been watching their house for three days without anybody knowing, were casually leaning on their fence when she and Sarah came back home. She didn’t see any weapons around but she’s sure they have them.

Which is why she gets up at 3 am sharp and lets a medical team, _DYAD institute_ carefully embroidered on the pockets of their aprons, inside her house.

**Author's Note:**

> Villains always come back for revenge when you finally think you've achieved happiness, that's why.


End file.
